More on Traffic Tickets

PLEA BARGAIN BAN BURDENS SMALL COURTS:

IT'S BEEN only 27 days since state troopers, under an edict from New York State Police brass in Albany, stopped plea-bargaining traffic tickets, but already the effects are being felt in courtrooms across the Hudson Valley.

In Greene County, the only area county where the plea-bargaining task has been assumed by the District Attorney's Office, prosecutors are finding themselves in court far longer than in the past and the wheels of justice are turning slowly.

In Dutchess and Ulster counties, where prosecutors have declined to fill the void created by the new state police policy, more traffic cases are going to trial and resolutions coming slowly.

"I already have trials scheduled out until March," said town of Clinton Justice Barbara Seelbach.

Seelbach, who took office in January and presides over court in a town that includes several miles of the Taconic State Parkway, said she didn't preside over a single traffic trial during her first eight months in office.

"Now it's a whole different ballgame," she said. "I'm wondering how we're going to handle this, calendar-wise."

Saugerties Town Justice Robert Francello said his court also has had a marked increase in the number of traffic cases going to trial.

"On one night in August, I had 57 trials (scheduled). Zero went to trial," he said. "Now, in September ... we ran out of time and had to reschedule."

Under a policy that went into effect Sept. 1, state troopers no longer are allowed to offer plea bargains to motorists issued traffic tickets. The state Legislature in August passed legislation prohibiting the state police from instituting the policy, but Gov. George Pataki vetoed that bill and the policy was allowed to take effect.